2009 Couture Council Artistry of Fashion Award: Dries van Noten

2009 Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion

On Wednesday, September 9, 2009 The Couture Council of The Museum at
FIT honored Dries van Noten with the 2009 Couture Council Award for
Artistry of Fashion at their fourth benefit luncheon at New York City’s
Cipriani 42 Street. The FIT Couture Council’s glamorous
annual luncheon is the first event of the New York’s Fall Fashion Week.

Previous recipients of the Couture Council Artistry of Fashion Award
have been Isabel Toledo in 2008 (a prescient choice made before Mrs.
Obama selected her for her Inaugural outfit), Alber Elbaz of Lanvin in
2007, and Ralph Rucci, the recipient of the first award in 2006.
Recipients of the Award are chosen by the Couture Council Advisory
Committee, an independent group consisting of curators, editors, and
retailers. Members include Pamela Golbin, curator of the Musée de la
Mode, Akiko Fukai, director and chief curator of the Kyoto Costume
Institute, Glenda Bailey, editor-in-chief of Harpers Bazaar, Hamish
Bowles, editor of Vogue, Ken Downing of Neiman Marcus, Linda Fargo of
Bergdorf Goodman, Julie Gilhart of Barneys New York, and others. The
group is chaired by Dr. Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of
The Museum at FIT.

“Dries van Noten creates clothes of extraordinary beauty and
originality,” says Steele. “His sense of color, print and decoration
are unequaled. Dries’ clothes are not for one season. Like works of
art, they continue to speak to us across time and space. He has created
a unique personal signature, but at the same time, he facilitates the
wearer’s individual sense of style.”